Choosing the Right Voice of the Customer Tools: An Essential Guide for CSMs

Voice of the Customer (VoC) tools help customer success teams systematically collect, analyze, and act on customer feedback across surveys, conversations, and product interactions. When used well, they surface early churn risks, reveal product friction, and guide smarter engagement.

For many CSMs, however, customer feedback is scattered across NPS tools, support tickets, call transcripts, and spreadsheets. Signals get missed. Trends take weeks to spot. By the time dissatisfaction becomes visible, the renewal is already at risk.

At the same time, the VoC market is crowded. This guide breaks down what to look for in a VoC tool, explores leading platforms, and explains how to integrate customer feedback into your CS workflows so it drives real improvements in retention, satisfaction, and long-term value.

Key takeaways

• VoC tools centralize customer feedback from surveys, conversations, and support channels to surface risks and product issues early.
• AI-powered platforms like Velaris detect sentiment and patterns that manual reviews often miss.
• Enterprise tools like Medallia and Qualtrics suit complex programs, while lighter tools like SurveyMonkey fit simple survey needs.
• Effective VoC programs combine the right tool with clear goals, team adoption, and continuous improvement.
• VoC insights are most valuable when connected to customer health, CRM data, and CS workflows so teams can act quickly.

What are important features to look for in VoC tools?

The best VoC tools combine real-time feedback collection, sentiment analysis, automation, integrations, and advanced reporting to help Customer Success teams detect risks early and act on customer insights at scale.

Here are the key features to look for:

• Real-time feedback collection and analysis: Immediate access to customer feedback allows for timely responses and swift action on emerging issues, enhancing customer satisfaction and engagement.
• Customizable surveys (NPS, CSAT, CES): Tailoring surveys to your specific requirements, whether it’s measuring Net Promoter Score (NPS) or Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), allows you to gain targeted insights that align with your business goals.
• Sentiment analysis: AI-driven sentiment detection helps identify frustration, satisfaction, or churn risk hidden inside written feedback, emails, and support conversations.
• Integration with other CS tools: Integrating with your existing customer success platforms and CRM systems to provide a unified view of customer data and streamline workflows.
• Automation capabilities: Workflow automation enables continuous feedback collection, alerting, and routing without manual effort from CS teams.
• Reporting and analytics: Built-in dashboards and trend analysis help teams track performance over time and prioritize improvements based on data.

With these features in mind, you’ll be well-equipped to choose a VoC tool that fits your needs. Next, let’s dive into the top voice of the customer tools available today and see how they stack up.

What are the top voice of the customer tools?

The top Voice of the Customer (VoC) tools in 2026 include Velaris, Medallia, Qualtrics XM, SurveyMonkey, Clarabridge, and InMoment. These platforms help Customer Success teams collect feedback, analyze sentiment, and turn customer signals into measurable improvements in retention and satisfaction.

Below is a breakdown of the leading options and what each is best suited for.

1. Velaris

What it is:

Velaris, a highly rated tool on G2, is an AI-native customer success platform that captures, analyzes, and structures customer feedback from emails, tickets, calls, and surveys to provide real-time voice of the customer insights at both account and company level.

Why it stands out for VoC:

Velaris goes beyond traditional surveys by continuously analyzing how customers communicate across channels and converting unstructured feedback into actionable intelligence.

Key VoC capabilities include:

• Trending Topics (automated feedback categorization):
  Customer emails, support tickets, and call transcripts are automatically grouped into structured topics and subtopics (such as product feedback, integrations, bugs, or praise). This allows teams to spot recurring issues and satisfaction trends without manual tagging.
• CallSense (conversation-level sentiment & feedback extraction):
  Sales and CS calls are transformed into structured outputs including summaries, action items, detected risks, opportunity signals, conversation themes, and AI-generated sentiment indicators.
• Headlines (account-level VoC summaries):
  Velaris generates a continuous TL;DR for each account, highlighting key developments, sentiment shifts, product feedback, and risks across recent interactions.
• Multi-source feedback ingestion:
  VoC signals are collected from emails, CRM notes, support platforms, and call recording tools, creating a unified view of customer perception.
• Customer health + sentiment fusion:
  Feedback insights are combined with behavioral and usage data to contextualize sentiment within overall account health.

Best for:

B2B SaaS companies and CS teams that want to move from survey-only VoC programs to continuous, AI-driven customer insight across conversations, support interactions, and account activity.

2. Medallia

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What it is:

Medallia is an enterprise-grade Voice of the Customer (VoC) platform designed to collect, unify, and analyze customer feedback across digital, in-product, support, and offline touchpoints.

Why it stands out for VoC:

Medallia is built specifically for large-scale feedback programs. It specializes in aggregating high volumes of structured and unstructured customer data and transforming it into organization-wide customer experience insights through advanced analytics and reporting.

Key VoC capabilities include:

• Multi-channel feedback collection:
  Captures feedback from surveys, websites, mobile apps, contact centers, social media, email, and in-store interactions into a single system of record.
• Advanced text and sentiment analytics:
  Uses NLP to analyze open-ended responses and conversations, detect sentiment, identify emerging issues, and surface recurring themes.
• Real-time experience alerts:
  Automatically flags negative feedback or experience drops and routes alerts to relevant teams for immediate follow-up.
• Journey-level experience tracking:
  Maps feedback across customer journeys (onboarding, support, renewal, product usage) to identify friction points and moments that drive satisfaction or churn.

Best for:

Large enterprises that need a centralized VoC platform to manage high feedback volumes, run company-wide experience programs, and support deep analytics across multiple customer touchpoints and business units.

3. Qualtrics XM

What it is:

Qualtrics XM is an enterprise experience management and Voice of the Customer (VoC) platform used to design surveys, collect customer feedback, and analyze experience data across digital and offline channels.

Why it stands out for VoC:

Qualtrics is known for its depth and flexibility in survey design and analytics. It allows organizations to run highly customized feedback programs and perform advanced analysis on customer responses, making it a strong choice for teams that need precise measurement and segmentation.

Key VoC capabilities include:

• Advanced survey design and logic:
  Supports complex branching, conditional questions, scoring models, and multi-language surveys for NPS, CSAT, CES, and custom experience programs.
• Multi-channel feedback collection:
  Collects responses via email, in-product surveys, SMS, web intercepts, and offline channels.
• Powerful analytics and segmentation:
  Enables deep filtering by customer attributes, lifecycle stage, region, product usage, and demographics to uncover trends across segments.
• Text and sentiment analysis:
  Uses natural language processing to analyze open-ended feedback, detect sentiment, and identify common themes.
• Enterprise reporting and integrations:
  Provides configurable dashboards and integrates with CRMs, data warehouses, and customer success platforms to distribute insights across teams.

Best for:

Mid-to-large enterprises that need highly customizable surveys, advanced analytics, and structured experience measurement programs across multiple customer segments and regions.

4. SurveyMonkey

What it is:

SurveyMonkey is a widely used voice of the customer (VoC) tool focused on quick survey creation and easy feedback collection across multiple channels.

Why it stands out for VoC:

SurveyMonkey is known for its simplicity and accessibility. It allows teams to build and launch surveys rapidly without technical expertise, making it a popular choice for small to mid-sized teams that need straightforward VoC data without complex setup or heavy customization.

Key VoC capabilities include:

• Easy survey design and templates:
  Offers pre-built survey templates for common customer success metrics like NPS, CSAT, and CES, allowing teams to launch feedback programs quickly.
• Multi-channel distribution:
  Enables feedback collection via email, web links, embedded surveys, and mobile interfaces to reach customers where they engage.
• Basic analytics and reporting:
  Provides dashboards and summary charts for quick insight into customer sentiment and score trends.
• Export and integration support:
  Allows exporting feedback data to CSV or connecting with CRMs and analytics tools for further analysis.

Best for:

Small to medium-sized businesses and customer success teams looking for an affordable, easy-to-use platform to collect customer feedback without complex analytics or enterprise-level customization.

5. InMoment

What it is:

InMoment is a comprehensive Voice of the Customer (VoC) and customer experience platform that focuses on gathering real-time feedback and turning it into actionable insights to improve customer interactions and satisfaction.

Why it stands out for VoC:

InMoment is designed to help organizations capture feedback across multiple channels and quickly translate that feedback into prioritized actions. Its strength lies in balancing real-time insight delivery with outcome-oriented reporting, making it useful for teams that want to operationalize VoC data rather than just collect it.

Key VoC capabilities include:

• Real-time feedback capture:
  Collects customer responses continuously across surveys, digital channels, kiosks, and third-party platforms to reveal sentiment and experience trends as they emerge.
• Action planning and prioritization:
  Converts feedback into recommended action plans and alerts, allowing teams to respond to emerging issues quickly and systematically.
• Multi-channel data aggregation:
  Brings together customer input from surveys, in-app feedback, support interactions, reviews, and social channels into a unified dataset.
• Dashboards and reporting:
  Provides configurable dashboards and executive reports that help teams track VoC KPIs like NPS, CSAT, CES, and trend lines over time.

Best for:

Mid-to-large organizations seeking an enterprise-grade VoC solution with strong real-time insight delivery and a focus on turning feedback into prioritized action across customer experience programs.

Best practices for integrating VoC tools into your CS workflows

To get real value from voice of the customer (VoC) tools, CS teams need successful implementation depending on clear goals, team adoption, and continuous optimization. Here are some best practices to help you get the most out of your VoC initiatives:

Planning and goal setting

Setting clear goals for your VoC initiatives is crucial for measuring success and ensuring alignment with your overall business objectives. 

Start by defining your goals, whether improving customer satisfaction, reducing churn, or enhancing product features based on feedback. This structured approach helps keep your team focused and aligned on what matters most.

Employee training and engagement

Proper training and engagement of your CS teams are essential for the effective use of VoC tools. Ensure that your team understands how to use the tools and interpret the data they provide. 

Standardize CS processes with playbooks that include in-built checklists and track progress. Engaged and well-trained employees are more likely to use VoC insights to drive meaningful actions and improvements.

Continuous improvement

VoC initiatives should be dynamic and evolve with your customers’ needs and feedback. Continuously analyze the feedback you receive and use it to make incremental improvements to your products, services, and customer interactions. 

Monitor your customer health score and other key metrics to ensure you are always improving. This ongoing commitment to listening and adapting will help you stay ahead of customer expectations and enhance their overall experience.

By incorporating these best practices, you'll not only optimize the use of your VoC tools but also enhance the overall effectiveness of your Customer Success strategy. 

Ensuring that your team is well-prepared and continuously improving will pave the way for sustained customer satisfaction and loyalty. 

Conclusion

Selecting the right voice of the customer (VoC) tool is essential for understanding and addressing your customers' needs effectively. The right tool can help you capture valuable feedback, analyze sentiment, and drive improvements in customer satisfaction and retention. 

If you're looking for a comprehensive solution to integrate VoC tools and optimize your Customer Success efforts, consider exploring Velaris, a highly rated platform on G2. With its robust capabilities, Velaris can help you gather all the information you need to gain actionable insights. Book a demo today and discover the difference it can make for your organization.